Northern Tier Canoe Base Expedition

July 10 - July 20, 2002

Wednesday, July 10, 2002
Arrival at Base Camp

We woke to the smell of a delicious breakfast, courtesy once again of the 53rd Winnipeg. There was time for more visiting before our shuttle bus arrived at the church building to ferry us to Bissett. Before leaving Dallas we had been warned that the mosquitoes we would encounter in the wilderness would be "bad", and those warnings were continued by the 53rd Winnipeg. However, we lacked any real frame of reference to be able to understand the definition of "bad", so we continued to naively hope that the copious quantities of deet and personal netting we had brought would be sufficient to protect us. The shuttle arrived, we loaded our gear and our selves, and departed for Bissett. The drive was quite enjoyable, the weather positively gorgeous, and spirits were high. We stopped at a small settlement, named Powerview after the nearby hydroelectric generating station, for lunch. We took the opportunity to purchase Canadian fishing licenses and also to exchange some of our U.S. currency for Canadian. The last 25 miles of road into Bissett was unpaved gravel, and we could certainly tell that we were getting into serious back country. Irma, our shuttle driver, dropped us and our grear at base camp and said she was planning to take a dip in the lake before making the three hour return trip to Winnipeg. We truly enjoyed her company. The Bissett Base Camp complex is very small. There are only nine buildings. Headquarters contains among other areas a small meeting room lounge area, staff kitchen, map and trip planning room, offices, food stock area, and the all important trading post. Another building stores trek crew gear such as tents, paddles, and life vests. There are two staff cabins, four crew cabins that are used by crews who are either coming off the road or off the water, and one building that houses two showers and a sauna. The sauna would later prove to be a delicious treat for us as weary voyagers coming off the water. There is no dining hall in camp. Instead, crews coming off the road or off the water take all their meals at one of the two local restaurants in town, both within walking distance of base camp. I checked us in at base camp, confirmed that everything was in order, and breathed a sigh of relief in knowing that for the next 10 days at least, I was done with paperwork. The crew met our Wilderness Interpreter, Ryan Metcalfe, and he began our training. Ryan is a native of Thunder Bay, Ontario. From the very beginning I was impressed with his calm, friendly, and reassuring manner. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening reducing our personal gear to only the essentials, establishing our packing routine, being outfitted with tents, paddles, and vests, completing the detailed planning of our trek, acquiring and marking maps with our planned route, and listening to Ryan as he patiently tried his best to train us, a bunch of landlocked Texans, about the finer points of wilderness canoeing. A word about packing for the trek is in order. Food, cooking stoves, fuel, pots, and utensils sufficient to cook, feed, and clean up after twelve people for nine days had to be carried. We also needed tents, sleeping bags, clothing, first aid supplies, water treatment, insect repellant, sunscreen, foot powder, personal gear, and miscellaneous toiletries enough for everyone for the trip. We also carried an emergency radio, maps, water containers, and a dining fly. Understandably, the resulting inventory of food, supplies, and equipment was significant. Several times each day we would have to get out of the canoes and carry all the food, gear, and canoes to traverse some obstacle such as a rapids or a beaver lodge, or to change from one waterway to another. This meant that everything had to be packed so that it could all be carried by the available crew members in one trip. Each canoe carried three people, so that meant that each such portage (pronounced por-'TAHJ we were informed) required one crew member to carry the canoe and two crew members to carry the paddles and whatever portion of the crew's food and gear was in the canoe. No amount of engineering could avoid the reality that with one crew member carrying the canoe, the remaining two would have to somehow carry nine days' worth of food and nine days' worth of gear for three people, plus some portion of the overall crew gear. Each canoe would carry it's allotment of gear packed in one large canvas pack lined with a large plastic bag for a degree of protection from getting wet. The packs themselves were huge, easily equal in size to a standard two-drawer office filing cabinet. They were heavy, weighing in at a minimum of 85 to 90 pounds (40 kg) each, and though they had shoulder straps and hip belts they were very awkward to carry. The food was carried in large 35 gallon "Action Packer" plastic containers that were subsequently inserted into canvas bags equipped with shoulder straps and hip belts. Fully loaded at the beginning of our trip, these were insanely heavy. We didn't actually weigh them, but I estimated their weight as at least 100 pounds (45 kg) each. Our smallest crew member at a mere 80 pounds (36 kg) was going to be seriously challenged. Outfitted, packed, and ready to go we had four of the large gear packs with all of our gear. We had two "Action Packer" packs with all of our food and one "Action Packer" pack with our stoves, fuel, kitchen/cleaning supplies, dining fly, and other miscellaneous crew gear. We had one day pack into which we put the food and supplies we were likely to need each day while paddling (lunch, water treatment, toilet paper, e.t.c.) so that we could avoid having to open up the larger packs until we arrived at that night's camp site. The last pack contained all of Ryan, our interpreter's, tent and other personal gear along with the emergency radio. After reducing our supplies to what we thought was the minimum required and then test packing everything, we walked down to Wynne's Place for dinner. Wynne's Place was a local establishment near base camp that was a combination restaurant and general store. The food was good, and the people friendly. Displayed in cases on the wall of the simple dining room were a great number of scout patches from all over the U.S. We saw several from Texas troops including council patches from Circle Ten, our home council. When we returned to base camp later, many of us availed ourselves of what would be our last opportunity for a hot shower for the next 10 days. Before retiring to our cabins for the night a few of us spent a wonderful time in the headquarters lounge visiting with Ryan and the rest of the staff who were in camp. We swapped stories, brain teasers, and even a few songs. Back in our cabin, I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation with the older scouts on our crew. Instead of the teen chatter that one might expect, the discussion focused mostly on matters of character and spirituality. It was an honor for me to be included in the conversation, not as an "adult", but as an equal participant. It was one of the high points of the trip for me.